Pickier now, employers run more background checks

Sunday

Apr 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 7, 2013 at 1:08 PM

At the St. Louis-based AAIM Employers Association, a provider of employer-related business services to 1,600 employers, the number of companies using the background checks and drug tests that AAIM offers its members more than doubled last year while its membership rose only marginally.

If a lawsuit or arrest is part of your past, your new employer increasingly wants to know. • As the economy improves and companies add to their ranks, many are taking the opportunity to revamp their hiring processes. And, with many people still out of work and vying for a limited number of jobs, employers can be pickier than ever.

At the St. Louis-based AAIM Employers Association, a provider of employer-related business services to 1,600 employers, the number of companies using the background checks and drug tests that AAIM offers its members more than doubled last year while its membership rose only marginally.

In 2012, 810 companies sought AAIMCheck background checks or drug tests from the organization, up from 392 in 2011.

Philip Brandt, AAIM’s president and CEO, said the sharp rise in the number of checks isn’t caused by increased hiring by its members.

Instead, employers are becoming increasingly aware of the high costs when they don’t pre-screen employees, he said.

“Hiring people costs money,” Brandt said. “To get it right the first time is what employers are more focused on now.”

An added danger, Brandt said, is the greater exposure companies are faced with when a high-ranking employee is caught flubbing information on his or her resume.

Examples of executives whose resumes contained errors that proved embarrassing for their employer include Yahoo Inc.’s former CEO Scott Thompson, who was ousted from the company a year ago after news broke that he claimed a degree in computer science he hadn’t earned.

“There’s more and more awareness when hires go wrong,” Brandt said. “That can be devastating for their business.”

But employers need to make sure they don’t break laws.

“It’s a trend that we’ve been noting for several years, particularly after 2011,” Michelle Rodriguez, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project, said about the rising number of employers conducting background checks and drug tests. NELP is an employee advocacy nonprofit organization based in New York.

Rodriguez said the number of companies that offer those services is increasing, and technology is making it faster and easier for the checks and tests to be performed.

Her nonprofit group is fielding more complaints from people who say background checks are making it impossible to find work, she said.

“Unfortunately, there are too many companies that have blanket bans” based on criminal history or other factors, Rodriguez said.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provided new guidance last April that said the use of some background checks in hiring can violate prohibitions against employer discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

For example, a company could be in violation of Title VII if it uses criminal history information for applicants in different ways for different groups, based on applicants’ race or national origin.

David Minton, president and CEO of Heartland Bank in Clayton, Mo., said the bank, which employs 300 people, has used background checks and drug tests on all new hires for at least six years.

“We’re obviously handling one of customers’ most important possessions: their money,” he said. “ We want to make sure that we do that with employees of the highest caliber.”

But even with the information the background checks and drug tests can offer, Minton said employers should also rely on other factors to make their hiring decisions.